Chinese spies breached hundreds of public, private networks, security firm says

By FRANK BAJAK
AP Technology Writer

The U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant says suspected state-backed Chinese hackers exploited a vulnerability in a popular email security appliance to break into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally, nearly a third of them government agencies including foreign ministries. Fifty-five percent of the targets were from the Americas and 24% from the Asia Pacific region. They included foreign ministries in Southeast Asia and foreign trade offices and academic organizations in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Mandiant said. The activity exploiting the hacked Barracuda Networks’ Email Security Gateway dated back as early as October.